336 



Repoet of the State Geologist. 



Road Metal. 



Large quantities of crushed stone are used in Buffalo by the different 

 companies engaged in laying asphalt pavements, concrete sidewalks and con- 

 crete work generally. It is used as the foundation of all asphalt j)avement, 

 of which the city now has over 200 miles. When a stone pavement wears 

 out, it is, as a rule, replaced by asphalt. In this case, the old blocks, usually 

 of Medina sandstone, are crushed on the spot and used as the basis for the 

 street pavement. Chips from the Medina standstone quarries in Orleans 

 county are also crushed and sent in by canal so cheaply as to compete strongly 

 with the home product. It is, therefore, very difficult to estimate closely the 

 amount consumed in the city. The Corniferous limestone is generally pre- 

 ferred to the Medina sandstone, for the reason that it is less absorbent, both 

 of water and of paving material. For macadam pavement it is used entirely, 

 the flint furnishing a substance which is very enduring, and the limestone 

 serving to pack it firmly together. Neither of these materials splits readily 

 or breaks up under hoofs or wheels. It makes, also, excellent ballast for rail- 

 roads and is used for that purpose by some of the suburban electric railways. 

 The Buffalo, Bellevue and Lancaster railroad has a crusher at Belle vue which 

 furnishes ballast for that road and a large amount for surfacing the streets of 

 Depew. The Buffalo Cement Co. have recently erected a steam crusher with 

 a capacity of 450 yards a day, in which waste from their quarries, particularly 

 the cherty rock from the edge of the Corniferous limestone, is reduced to road 

 metal. The rock is wheeled in barrows directly to the mill, where it is 

 crushed, screened and loaded by chutes directly into cars for shipment with- 

 out further handling. The finer grades are used in concrete work, and the 

 coarser are sold as ballast. The Barber Asphalt Co. has the largest plant in 

 the city, at Fillmore avenue, near Appenheimer, where its quarries are located. 

 It consumes the greater part of the product, but sells some to other parties. 

 The Park commissioners have a crusher at the Central Park quarry, in which 

 road metal for the park roads is prepared. During 1895, however, they pur- 

 chased their supply of the Barber Asphalt Co. The Forest Lawn cemetery 

 has a crusher in which material for the cemetery walks and drives is prepared. 

 The stone is obtained from a quarry on the north side of the enclosure. 



Statistics regarding road metal will be found in the following table: 



